Quezon top ‘drug lord’s’ daughter, wife arrested

EVIDENCE Toni Ann Abutin Alcala being investigated at the police station with the sachets of shabu and marked money (foreground) confiscated during her arrest. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

TAYABAS CITY, Quezon: The daughter of Cerilo “Athel” Alcala, tagged by the police as “high value target” (HVT) on the illegal drugs watch list, and his wife were arrested on Sunday night in a buy-bust in Barangay Isabang this city.

Her mother and estranged wife of Athel, Maria Fe Abutin Alcala, 58, was also arrested for drug possession.

Police said another suspect, whom they would not identify pending arrest, escaped when the team swooped down on the house.

Confiscated were 24 pieces of medium sachets containing shabu weighing 115 grams and with an estimated value of 212,750 as well as the 10,000 marked money, cash amounting to 6,100 and assorted drug paraphernalia.

Yarra said Toan deals only with buyers of shabu worth P10,000 and above.

He added that the mother and daughter’s drug-dealing business continued even with the surrender of Athel and his son last month.

Athel, 59, and his son, Shajid, 36, last August 14 submitted themselves to the police, after his nephew, Lucena City Mayor Roderick Alcala, ordered his arrest.

The two were accompanied by Athel’s brother, Quezon Rep. Vicente Alcala, and the mayor during their surrender in Lucena.

Athel and Vicente are brothers of Proceso Alcala, Agriculture secretary under the previous Aquino administration.

The Lucena mayor himself ordered the arrest of his uncle four days ago.

Athel is on top of the watch list of illegal drug suspects in Quezon and is said to have supplied drugs to the entire province for more than a decade, with central Quezon as base.

He told the police and members of the media during his surrender that he stopped his illegal activities a long time ago.

Athel and Shajid were both arrested in September 2008 in a major drug bust by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency at their ancestral home in Barangay Cotta.

Cases for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act were filed against them but they were able to post a 1.5-million bail.

Meanwhile, Yarra said they are tracking down 87 more HVTs in Quezon province.